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Aszhari
Description Created by the twins this race of lizard people are tall and slender humanoids who reside on the isles of wonder. Their scales are soft and flexible, not strong enough to provide defense against the fangs and horns of the most dangerous inhabitants of the isles but almost impervious to traditional weapons of wood and stone. They tend to assume a dark green or black coloration with the eyes of a weird blue color. They have a strong tail, extremely flexible but unreliable for complex manipulation, used for balancing their bodies and occasionally fighting. While cold blooded they are capable of “heating up” their bodies using electricity and lightning’s created by the frequent storms on the islands, somehow they are capable of retaining a little energy in their bodies that is used to increase their reflexes strength and magical power. The composition of their bodies and scales allow them to “attract” lightning from the surrounding area and they like to wear items designed to increase this channeling aspect. Aszhari hates cold climates, but even more places with a stagnant and tranquil atmosphere, where they could not replenish their “energy” trough storms, they tend however to be nomadic and dislike enclosed spaces, at the same time however they love to build large monuments and elaborated stone structures to satisfy their ego. Aszhari are resistant to the most adverse atmospheric conditions. They mate for life, however the females produce a batch of eggs only once or twice in their life time, Aszhari’s birth rate tends to naturally decrease every generation, due to the dilution of their divine spark, their eggs are prone to mutation and only an extremely low number of pure Aszhari are born from each time, with the other eggs giving life to lesser creatures or are merely stillborn. However they grow up at a fast rate, reaching maturity around the 6th month of life when their aging process slows down so much that they might seem almost immortal. An extremely rare breed of Ashzari is born with a pair of large bat-like wings, these creature, called Eshaki, or merely Blessed Ones, by the other aszhari possess a closer connection to their god and can develop strong supernatural powers, however for some unknown reason Blessed Ones rarely have living offsprings and even in that case simply give life to standard speciments. History Aszhari was born from an experiment of the god Eshcal, in order to better understand life he incarnated into a Stormfang drake for a while, after mating with a female behmoth the couple produced many eggs, however Eshcal mortal form was killed before they could hatch. At first only one of the eggs produced living offspring, the twins Evshan and Sarris, brother and sister the two lived alone for a while on the isles, seeking company the twins managed to steal their brothers not hatched eggs, but was unable to help the new creatures birth. Frustrated and desperate as their behemoth mother was rushing to get the eggs back Sarriss used the only thing that they have not yet attempted, she prayied to any superior power for the eggs. It was the first real prayer dedicated to Eshcal and the god, almost unknwnligly complied, giving life to the first Aszhari. The Aszhari lived on the Isles alone for a long time, dividing into small tribes, each led by a packmaster and dividing the massive available land into hunting grounds for their kind, only rarely they congreated in large numberers, to celebrate their birth or when faced with something that a single pack can't deal with, in that case the leader of the strongest pack in the region assume control of as many Aszhari as he could to form a single nearly ustoppable army, these leaders take the title of Overlods for life, but relinquish their power as soon as there are no more threats. When finally Eshcal discoverd the existance of the Aszhari, with the help of the extremely perceptive Zang the god found out that he could not hear their toughts and feeling as he does withe the spirits made by his own essence, frustrated by this he decided to find a way to circumvent this limitation. Knowing that he was able to sense the prayer that caused the Aszhari to be born because it was an act of extreme faith and desperation, he decided to try and replicate that deed, he took a group of Aszhari to the tallest mountain of the Isles one that they could not climb down to safety, telling them that he will save them only after hearing their call. After a few days the Aszhari was half starved but had not abandoned their hope and faith in Eshcal, In the end one of them, an hunter named Darhek, offered himself in sacrifice, calling for the first time the power of blood magic and making his voice reach the god. The power unleashed saved the Ashzari and carved the temple forstress of Osahn Gaar from the top of the mountain. One day the Aszhari Priests called for Eshcal aid, after a terrible draugh almost decimated their people, trough an act known as the Greatest Sacrifice, the god heard their call and sent a powerful storm to refresh their bodies and faith, when the lightnings created by the storm struck the eggs of the unborn Aszhari they blesse some of their children with the power of their maste, giving life to the first Aszhari subspecie, these winged beings, called Blessed Ones, by their people, was accepted and even revered by many, but feared by others as a treath to their own power. The Blessed ones integrated in the Aszhari civilization, but remained at large isolated and lone. Centuries later from the temple of Oshan Gaar new breeds of lesser Aszhari appeared, attempting to solve the issue of the extremely low birth rate of his people, with many eggs failing to hatch, the high priest attempted to use blood magic to infuse life in bany stillborn eggs, even if he was successful at first he did not manage to grant the divine spark of the Aszhari to his new beings, creating the Masaren, bulkier albino reptilian humanoids, considered by most of the Aszhari as jounger brother and allies. The priest, even if not successful in giving life to new Aszhari, rejoiced about the birth of the Maseren, however they did not know that such an acti was going to bring a dark age for their people. One of the priests who partecipated to the cerimony in fact, was an ambitious blessed one, named Ranjan Dakaan, the priest was addicted by the rush of power granted by using blood magic and sought to become closer to his god by assuming leadership of the Aszhari people, one way or another. Using the secrets of blood magic learned while giving life to the Masaren Ranjan Dakaan created in secret another breed of Aszhari, given life by the sacfifice of an unwilling victim the Jeraca, smaller of their cousins but gifted with powerful fangs and wicked claws, had a bloodthirsty nature and was the perfect tools for the dark priest plans of ascension. Bidding his time Ranjan used many years to gather allies and increase the number of his servants in order to conquer the Aszhari and provide himself with enough power to ascend and finally encounter their father Eshcal in person. Only an alliance led by the Prophets of Eshcal and the Primal Spirits allowed the defeat of the Jeraca armies and forced the dark priest and his servants into hiding after a terrifying and bloody war. From the ashes of the conflict the Ashzari decided to forge a new nation, in order to cleanse their people from the darkness of Ranjan agents and secure that such a betrayal will never happen again, giving life to the Dominion. Not everyone however joined this new order, some preferred to keep their old ways of life, joining in a loose alliance of clans and then seceding by the dominion, nearly abandoning the way of blood magic and seeking the guidance of the spirits from the Grotto... Important Settlements Currently they live a nomadic life on the Isles of Wonders, occasionally congregating in three sacred places, the Zin'Daasi, orDivine Boneyard, where Eshcal mortal body died, where they celebrate funeral rites and sacrifices, the Daskha Var, Craddle of life, where the twins was concieved by Eshcal and his stormfang mate and the Aszhan Zin, the Holiest place, where the first batch of eggs hatched. Oshan Gaar is the largest Aszhari settlement, still counting only 50 Aszhari at most, it is the first temple of the bloodspeakers, carved trough magic on the top of the Isles tallest mountain, it is the place where the Aszhari are trained by the wisest among their kind in the secrets of blood magic. Society Aszhari’s hart is as cold as their blood, only extreme emotion can awake their interest, anything less than a tragedy a great love or the thrill of putting their own life in danger usually leaves them unimpressed and cold. For these reason they tend to seek dangerous way to stimulate their minds and hearts. Aszhari has a personal view of honor and while they will rarely makes promises or offer their loyalty to those they consider inferior they will never break a vow or betray a friendship. Being god blooded has made them arrogant and they consider inferior pretty much every other race but their own, Aszharis are individualistic by nature and tend to form only small hunting packs or communities of their own kind a thing that does not prevent them to have large domain and legions of enslaved members of lesser saurian race. Every pack is a closed social construct however and develop strong rivalries with the other group of hunters and even among its members. Even when congregating in larger groups the Aszhari keeps their “hunting” background with the leaders chosen due to merit and personal power combined, the Aszhari Overlords rule over a larger number of packs mostly due to their own skill, the one of their companions and their wealth in term of territory and slaves. Aszhari are not considered adults by their peers until they have killed a pray of at least their size armed only with their hands, scales and wits. It is not considered shameful to team up with other young Aszhari, in killing a particularly formidable pray, like a Stormfang behemoth or fang drakes. They view death as a proper conclusion to a long life and a blissful reward for their existence, however they considered dying out of old age, something that happens after more than a millennium of life, shameful and as soon as they begun to see signs of physical and mental decadence they start looking for dangerous tasks that might bring to their death. Killing another of their own kind, due to the extreme low number and birth rate of the race, is considered shameful, so they prefer to solve their personal conflict in some non lethal, but occasionally violent way. Occasionally one Aszhari is born with a pair of bat-like wings, in some tribes this is considered a Blessing of Eshcal and the winged Aszhari are honored by their brothers, however in many other they are considered threats to the rule of the tribe leaders and are killed a few moments after hatching. Living a life of solitude the winged ones tend to leave their community to explore the land and usually vanish from the Aszhari society. They have a quite bloody view of religion, they worship Eshcal and his two sons as gods, however they see themselves as a chosen race and treasure their own small shard of divinity, considering themselves to be almost at the same level of their gods. The Aszhari religion is strongly based on bloody sacrifices, which somehow are related to the concept of hunting. Some believe that sacrifice of the prays blood and life should be used while other believe in the importance of self sacrifice and some time even volunteer to die on the bloody altars of Eshcal when their old age is coming. Their ritual magic uses both blood and lightning as power sources for their spells. Tools and Technology (Coming soon but the fluff is up :p) Aszhari architecture, built completely by slaves as no Aszhari does menial work, is built with a vertical and daring style, its stone structures also have many open areas and gardens as Aszhari dislikes enclosed spaces, the roofed halls are usually really large or have many windows or opening in order to reduce the sense of oppression caused by such places. Crude and raw metal structures are included in the buildings in order to channel electricity from the sky during a storm into open topped rooms where the Aszhari rest and recharge. These rooms and the ones nearby at the beginning was quite dangerous to visitors however the evolution of Aszhari architecture in focusing the energy most of the structures slwly becomes safer. Aszhari does not use many clothes as they like the touch of wind on their scales, however they like metallic ornaments and weaponry, especially sharp objects. Aszhari are good archers, however they prefer to fight their prey in hand to hand combat if they can. Most of their goods are crafted by the slaves and tend to be crude and efficient. The few Aszhari that dedicate to crafts tend to create ornate works that are rarely useful and have a disturbing beauty coming from the deepest mind of the creator. Names Aszhari tend to use composite names, usually with some meaning related to their hunting skills or their domain, they are nameless until they become adult, when they acquire the first name, they gain another one if they manage to become packmasters or priests and a third one if they become overlords. Names: Daavhis, Zherifh, Csarris Dhalph, Maasen Szhe Nurh. Stats Classes None yet Techs Every Azhari is trained to become a good hunter, the race has "hunting" among its racial techs. In addition, a meeting with Rumbler taught them music. Later the Aszhari developped a form of divine magic based on blood and sacrifices, creating a caste of bood priest, choosen for their wisdom by the elder Aszhari overlords and the Twins. During the Aszhari civil war they managed to learn how to use their hunting skill in combat, developping the way of the warrior, meanwhile some of the Quori secretly middled with the mind of some Aszhair, learing their blood magic but allowing them to define new arcane rituals. Sample Monster Category:Races Category:Monsters